Why internal coaches?
Improving employee retention and productivity positively impacts both the culture of an organization and its mission. The question becomes how will we provide intentional support in a workforce with diverse experiences, talents, and expectations?
Internal coaches are especially effective when they are present, accessible, and trusted in the industry and organization in which they operate. The formalization of a coaching role creates on-the-job support for many employees.
New hires
When onboarding occurs, new staff are inundated with important information. Even in the best systems, it is difficult for new employees to connect the learning with all the tasks, procedures, and other expectations that arise later during their work experience.
Having a trusted coach with whom to find clarity on expectations and collaborative insights creates timely, relevant solutions. This has the power to reduce stress and increase productivity. Regularly scheduled coaching conversations provide opportunities to uncover misunderstandings, needs, and talents; when appropriately addressed, an employee’s connection and engagement with the organization increases.
Veteran staff
Experienced staff benefit from coaching conversations when:
- gaining responsibilities
- building expertise
- making decisions
- developing new skills
Trained coaches challenge peers to leverage their talents to thrive, develop perspective to identify knowledge gaps, and reframe limiting assumptions to support growth in these areas.
Organizations with a culture of learning increase capacity to respond to opportunities in the areas of well-being, productivity, and innovation. Engaging employees at all levels to practice or develop in at least one of these provides clear opportunities and paths for success.
Additionally, experienced or expert staff who strive to support others may find the role of coach is a good fit as their path for engagement and success.
Requisite skills: Coaches appreciate and respond to the uniqueness of individuals’ experiences, preferences, and areas of expertise to support reflection, understanding, and growth.
An internal coaching program is an investment which addresses complex environments; it leads to far-reaching, individualized talent development impacting the trained coaches, those with whom they work, and everyone they see.
When your organization’s mission is concrete, support new and established staff to connect with objectives, develop their talents, and surpass expectations. Train and support internal coaches to work with peers and those they mentor using the Perception Coaching® textbook: Coaching-for-Well-Being-Productivity-and-Innovation.